AUDIT: SECRET SERVICE CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR $3.3 BILLION; COAST GUARD $497 MILLION
Thu Feb 26 2004 08:44:46 ET
More than $3 billion in Secret Service retirement benefits could not be
adequately accounted for during a recent independent audit of the
Homeland Security Department's books, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY reports on Thursday.
The audit also showed the Coast Guard could not account for $497 million
in "operating materials and supplies," according to a Feb. 13 memo from
DHS Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin to Secretary Tom Ridge.
CQ's Justin Rood: "The memo is a summary of a report prepared by independent auditor KPMG
on an audit of the agency's financial operations for the final seven
months of fiscal 2003."
Coast Guard financial statements, the memo noted, "had never been
audited on a stand-alone basis." It said the Secret Service "has already
started corrective actions related to its retirement benefits."
The inspector general's office declined to comment on the memo.
The audit "confirms my concerns about weak financial management controls
across [Department of Homeland Security]," Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., ranking member of the
Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said in an e-mail.
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